Must be a common trend with her stuff. My boyfriend got a saucepan from her line as a gift. The thing is awful. The connections at the handle came loose almost immediately, it heats unevenly and the handle gets too hot to touch. They make crap products, slap her name on them and charge out the ass for them. Poor quality control.

victrin:Must be a common trend with her stuff. My boyfriend got a saucepan from her line as a gift. The thing is awful. The connections at the handle came loose almost immediately, it heats unevenly and the handle gets too hot to touch. They make crap products, slap her name on them and charge out the ass for them. Poor quality control.

Pretty much. I doubt she sat down with some clay and a kiln and designed the pan herself... Her PR company went here

I was doing dishes after supper and noticed a tiny (1/8 in long) crack in the off-brand glass baking dish I was washing. While I was thinking, "I ought to replace this before it falls apart," that crack shot across and the sharp-edged pieces fell through my fingers. My long-suffering housemate drove me to the ER where I lay exsanguinating for an hour while they tended to some teenage OD. Thirty years later I can still see the scars where they stitched me up.

I stick to Pyrex now.

/Why yes, it WAS in Manassas//college co-op. What a weird place that town was. Mix of engineers and rednecks.///Hi John. Sorry about the blood.

these celebrity branded items are usually a joke. however, i find newmans own stuff to be pretty good across the board and oddly rachel rays branded beef stock is really good (keeps winning the cooks illusatrated blind taste test)

tlchwi02:these celebrity branded items are usually a joke. however, i find newmans own stuff to be pretty good across the board and oddly rachel rays branded beef stock is really good (keeps winning the cooks illusatrated blind taste test)

Yeah, unless it's a Williams Sonoma or a Sur le Table (both of which are a little outta my affordability range except maybe for SLT's clearance rack) you can't go into any store's cookware department without having to stare at giant portraits of Paula Deen and Guy Ferry's pudgy grinning faces leering back at you. It's kind of a creepy experience.

As far as celebrity-branded stuff goes, though, I've read that 'Emerilware' isn't too bad. Lately though I've been doing most of my kitchen shopping at a restaurant supply house. Those places are wonderful ...

tlchwi02: these celebrity branded items are usually a joke. however, i find newmans own stuff to be pretty good across the board and oddly rachel rays branded beef stock is really good (keeps winning the cooks illusatrated blind taste test)

Yeah, unless it's a Williams Sonoma or a Sur le Table (both of which are a little outta my affordability range except maybe for SLT's clearance rack) you can't go into any store's cookware department without having to stare at giant portraits of Paula Deen and Guy Ferry's pudgy grinning faces leering back at you. It's kind of a creepy experience.

As far as celebrity-branded stuff goes, though, I've read that 'Emerilware' isn't too bad. Lately though I've been doing most of my kitchen shopping at a restaurant supply house. Those places are wonderful ...

tlchwi02:these celebrity branded items are usually a joke. however, i find newmans own stuff to be pretty good across the board and oddly rachel rays branded beef stock is really good (keeps winning the cooks illusatrated blind taste test)

tlchwi02:these celebrity branded items are usually a joke. however, i find newmans own stuff to be pretty good across the board and oddly rachel rays branded beef stock is really good (keeps winning the cooks illusatrated blind taste test)

Most of these celebrity-branded items are a joke because they're meant to convince people they're good cooks while they use a celebrity-branded hamburger helper to make dinner in the microwave. Using these things is totally not in the specs. It's the same as the pretty couch that nobody's supposed to actually sit on.

I'm glad the "untouchable furniture" thing has been mostly forgotten. I still remember visiting relatives (and my parents friends) who had entire "sitting rooms" full of furniture that looked brand new, was usually in vinyl covers, and no one ever EVER used. We always gathered in the living room, where the furniture was well-used, and the couches (if they weren't also covered in vinyl) were threadbare and stained. When I asked once, I was told that it was for "formal occasions". This from an older woman who worked part time as a secretary, and who's husband was a machinist. When were they ever going to have a formal gathering?

I once sneaked in to a sitting room and sat on a chair. It was the most uncomfortable chair I've ever sat on. Of course then I got caught, and the punishment wasn't too comfortable either (I think I was 5 when this happened).

i was given a set of paula deen branded pots and pans for christmas a few years back. they're ok. they're copper bottomed, so the cooking is fine but the handles are a bit too long and thin, and the "heat resistant" coatings on them are useless. still, for the occasional sauce or steamed veggie, they are fine. i use my dutch over for pretty much everything else.

I like porcelain coated cast iron. I'll break the floor before the pans break if they drop. Lots to be had at second hand stores for pennies. Same with extremely good knives. Lots of wedding gifts that never get used.